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It just now occurred to me that I am a middle aged man with a beard living in an open carry state driving a four ton white van with a handicap hanger. I could be the most outwardly fascist jerk of a bigot on the face of the planet with impunity. Do the Democrats really want to flip the switch that’s resting just below the surface?

Are they that oblivious to the existence of me and those like me who have to hide their socialist tendencies to live safely amongst their RWNJ redneck neighbors? Are they oblivious to the dangers one faces just expressing a liberal political view? My guess is they are.

Winter is a gentle reminder that no matter where we go, with whom or how we get there, we leave a very small piece of us behind. Dogs have always known this, but humans need to be reminded from time to time, lest they forget.

It was the last day of the season at JD’s Custard in Englewood and we couldn’t miss the going-away party. Here is our visit.

We all piled into the puppy mobile:
Charlie didn’t really want to ride, but I had him on a leash so he had little choice. But once he was in, he wasted no time competing with Zoey for the front seat.

We arrived at the custard store and there was nobody in line ahead of us. AWESOME, though I’m sure they got pretty busy as the afternoon went on. I ordered a single vanilla scoop for Sallie, Zoey and Charlie. Cindy helped me carry it out to the van.

The dogs ate their custard in the van….

but then Charlie needed to check out where the custard came from, so we went exploring.

After all the custard was consumed, the carnage was horrifying….

so the human had to steady his nerves with some Tim Horton’s coffee.

And we are all set for next year. We’ll be ordering our usual holiday peppermint, eggnog and chocolate custard soon. Yes, chocolate is a holiday flavor!

Thank you for another great season, JD’s. We didn’t visit nearly enough but we promise to make up for it next summer. Enjoy the winter off.

Bad cholesterol is when you spend an entire life feeding your body processed, high-fat, high carb foods, sitting alone in a beanbag chair in your underwear, with a game controller in your hands. Your arteries eventually harden, you suffer a heart attack and die alone, undiscovered for days in front of a television with a test pattern.

Good cholesterol is when you spend an entire life eating good food, high in fat, rich in taste, enjoyed in the company of friends in the best kitchens and around the liveliest tables, enhanced with stimulating conversation and encouraged with laughter. Your arteries eventually harden, you suffer a heart attack and die surrounded by friends and family,

We all eventually get to the ultimate destination. Be sure to choose the journey wisely.

On Monday, Barack Obama delivered his second Inaugural Address. While the Right and the Left will argue over what was said there, here is the passage that I think embraces the struggle over not only “entitlements,” but of wages and unions, the dignity of work and the value of one’s life over another.

We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity. We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit. But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future. For we remember the lessons of our past, when twilight years were spent in poverty, and parents of a child with a disability had nowhere to turn. We do not believe that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at any time, may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other – through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security – these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.

Systems that take care of our common needs free us to contribute more deeply. Teachers just want to teach, welders want weld. They do not want to be fighting their employers for job security, a livable wage or decent working conditions. That is why we need unions. The energy teachers spend fending off the barbarians nipping at their heels is energy that saps them from being outstanding teachers. Same with artists, poets, writers, musicians, journalists and philosophers. They just want to create, not worry and fight about making enough to make a living. When we rob them of their work, we rob ourselves of our own cultural advancement.

Doctors want to treat patients, not fill out forms, run small businesses and fight insurance companies. Every battle with an insurance agent robs us all of that doctor’s potential contribution to advancing health care to its exception.

Most of us will get old. Most of us will need medical care. All of us need education. When we free ourselves of that worry of how we will gain an education, survive our old age and our health, we free ourselves to live and contribute more deeply. This is not a liberal idea; this is a community idea. This is one area that our government can and should help us achieve.

We should keep in mind that when the Founders drafted those documents Conservatives claw back to some almost two hundred fifty years ago, they were looking toward the future and seeing us as we are today. Perhaps we should honor them by looking forward to the country the United States of America will be in the next two hundred fifty years instead of pining to get back to the good ol’ days of the Founders.

While everyone was listening to Jodie Foster stumble nervously and reluctantly toward her coming out, her real message to the world was whispered so quietly only dogs heard her.

In case you missed the Jodie Foster Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2013 Golden Globe Awards, here is a transcript of that passage. It is at the very end.

I will continue to tell stories, to move people by being moved.
The greatest job in the world. It is just that from now on, I may be holding a different talking stick.
And maybe it won’t be as sparkly; maybe it won’t open on three thousand screens
Maybe it will be so quiet and delicate that only dogs can hear it whistle.
But it will be my writing on the wall, Jodie Foster was here
I still am and I want to be seen, to be understood deeply and to be not so very lonely.

A care packages of goodies from Scratch Baking Company arrived for us today; dog cookies, bagels and coconut cake. While Sallie went right in (she’s the boss, what can I say) all the dogs got a cookie.

And dined later on bagels and coconut cake.

Then they napped.

A very special thank you to Saxon Henry who shipped us the goodies. Yum, yum, yum!

I heard the blizzard warnings last night on the television and immediately thought all the news stations were just salivating at the chance to finally scare the living crap out of us with spun-up winter weather.

Shortly after sun-up this morning, I knew I was wrong. We were getting some real winter weather.

I’m lucky. I don’t have to go into my office to make a living. I just need an Internet connection and a laptop. I can redirect my office phone to my cell phone with a few clicks and log into servers from anywhere I can get WiFi.

But many employees are not as lucky. Many employees who work for retail and fast food places at or near minimum wage are not only expected to show up for work during bad weather, but will probably get their hours cut or fired if they show up late or not at all. In addition, many will also choose to sleep in their cars after their shift today so they won’t be late for work tomorrow morning.

Something to think about on Boxing Day when those of us who are more fortunate are supposed to be mindful of those less fortunate and labor in service for our comfort.

I like to eat. Alton Brown likes to cook. You would think this was a match made in heaven but so far, he has yet to drop by the DogWalk and make me a pie.

Hmmmm… pie.

But, he has replied to two of my tweets, so there is that. He uses Post-It Notes and mostly draws cartoons as part of the reply. It is really kind of cool and I recommend you hop onto his twitter timeline when he tweets.

Here are the two replies. Enjoy. They make Good Tweets! (Get it? Good Eats, Good Tweets… yeah.. ok)

There is a small bakery in South Portland, Maine that is making a huge splash, with ripples reaching as far away as Dayton, Ohio and Japan. This place is known as The Scratch Baking Company and it publishes a small journal twice a year called Baker’s Notes.

I sat down with Bob Johnson — who is the business genius behind all of this — and talked about the journal. We also spoke of many things including how companies create and transform communities.

Kick back and listen. (I apologize for the lower volume on the phone line, but just crank up your speakers. Thanks!)

On the evening of September 11, 2001, my family piled into the car and we drove to a restaurant to have dinner. During the five mile drive on a mostly deserted freeway, we talked about the events of the day and how the kids felt about them. My daughter — who was 10 at the time — was the most affected. As we passed by a gas station, she noticed a line of cars forming and blurted out, “Daddy, my friend said we should get gas NOW because it will be $10/gal by night. It’s already $5/gal in Indiana!”

I smiled because I could. I was driving and she couldn’t see my face from the back seat.

I asked her why she thought that was true? I can’t remember exactly what she said, but it amounted to ‘prices moving west to east’ just like the weather. We talked through this a bit more and then she realized that the logic her friend had was not entirely accurate. Prices don’t work like weather patterns.

Last week, The New York Times started a “What’s going on in this picture?” as part of their Newspaper in Education program, the Learning Network. It has been several years since I created newspaper lesson plans so I found myself a bit rusty as to why this bothered me so much. Then I remembered my recent exchanges with @NeilHedley on editorial point of view on some photos during this election cycle and found my bearings.

I don’t mean to disparage The New York Times and their Newspaper in Education program. They are following a model that has been set for a long time by educators. But I think we can do better by our kids.

During my time at Newspapers in Education at the Dayton Daily News, we did not play “guess what this is” games. We crafted the KidsINK pages like they were real editorial. That meant photos captions that explained what was going on in the photo.

But that does not mean the photo was not carefully edited. Photos on the KidsINK pages were as carefully chosen and cropped as were the words to describe them as were the words written to tell the story. The editorial point of view of photos mattered then 10-14 years ago and matters even more today.

Stick with me.

Part of what is challenging about teaching literature or history — and this case, news — is relying on the student to “discover” the plot that is somehow buried in a sea of words or behind a series of pixels on a photo. For most of them, withholdig the plot or what is happening in a photo seems like “gotcha” learning. Kids today are not in short supply with people telling them what they are looking at.

Finding out the facts or the plot is easier than ever with tools like Wikipedia and Google. The primary skill most students need now is not the ability to discover what is happening, but whether or not what they are being told and shown is factual and true.

Tell kids what is going on in the photos; don’t make them guess. Now, ask them, “Do you believe it is true? How about factual? What about the photo makes you think that? What about the photo makes you doubt that? Why do you think it is important that someone thought you should know that?” and then perhaps most importantly, “What do you believe the photojournalist is trying to convince you to believe?”

Skills our kids need to navigate their futures.
Bon Stewert wrote this excellent piece about sending kids out into the wild unprepared. Please read it (but after you finish this post.. I promise, we are almost done.)

Let’s fast-forward to The New York Times’ election day issue (the New York edition, which is different from the National Edition) photo above. A click on the photo will lead us to the full page*. What does this photo tell you?

At first glance, it is the First Family walking on stage before Barack Obama delivered his acceptance speech. But why that particular photo? What else is going on? What about the family, the election and the country did the editors want the readers to know? What is being said in that photo? What is the editorial point of view?

Here is my take. I think the position of the two girls — Sasha and Malia — is screaming volumes about what was accomplished on election night. Look at where they are relative to the president and first lady. They are in front of them, almost leading them on stage. I think the editors are telling us that while Barack Obama may have won a second term, it was really the generation coming after them that won the night. The next generation solidly includes members who are strong, non-white and female and not ever, ever, ever going to be breaking up with America.

In case you think I may be reading too much into the photo, take a look at the library of photos available to the front page editor. The photo featured above was chosen — consciously or subconsciously — for a reason. The photo is a self-contained story that the editor wanted to tell. There is no such thing as “just a pretty photo, embellishing an article” in a newspaper.

Kids need to know what is going on — and they need to go through the discovery process themselves — but they also need truth assessment in far faster and larger quantities than their parents ever did. In many cases, they don’t have the luxury of fact-checking against an encyclopedia or library. Media lies to them in a constant stream in real time; on television, on radio, on the Internet and in conversations with their friends and peers.

Snobbery and Promotion

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